Former President Goodluck Jonathan has reiterated that he doesn’t have bank accounts or property outside of Nigeria.
The former Nigerian President made the comments in response to news that the Nigerian government had requested that he alongside two former petroleum Ministers, Alison Diezani Madueke and Lukman Rilwanu as well as 8 other ex public officials submit their statements of accounts domiciled in some foreign banks from 2009 till date.
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This is supposedly to assist the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the oil and gas contact granted to P&ID.
In a statement released through his spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, Goodluck Jonathan said;
“Our attention has been drawn to international media reports to the effect that the Federal Government of Nigeria has subpoenaed bank records for former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan in the United States of America.
“We aver that the Federal Government of Nigeria did not contact Dr Jonathan or his wife before issuing these subpoenas. If they had, we would have advised them of the fact that you cannot subpoena what does not exist.”
Referencing a 2014 comment by Goodluck Jonathan that he had no accounts or property outside Nigeria, the statement said further;
We are confident in stating that between that time and now, nothing has changed with regards to Dr Goodluck Jonathan. He has no accounts in the United States of America and encourages US authorities to cooperate fully with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s subpoena.
“We would also like to state that during his tenure as President of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Jonathan extended every courtesy to former Presidents and Heads of state because he believed and still believes that promoting, projecting and protecting Nigeria’s sovereignty and the image is the paramount duty of her government because it is not possible to belittle Nigerians without belittling Nigeria.”
The statement pointed out that the P&ID contract was signed the former President came to power. It also reiterated that counsel which would have averted the current crisis was given in the handover notes of 2015.